The Genesis brand that made its debut one year ago has established itself as a game changer in the premium car market. Hyundai Motor spun off the premium brand Genesis in November 2015.
EQ900 has seen 20,930 units sold from last December through September, setting a new record for large-sized sedans since 16,927 Equus units were sold in the segment in 2002.
The number of cars sold under the new brand Genesis between last December and September this year tallied at 59,085, a 57.4 percent jump over the same period of last year, when 37,517 units were sold.
The 20,930 EQ900 units represented a 363.5 percent jump over its previous model, Equus. G80 saw 11,483 units sold through the end of September since its release in July, a 35.3 percent surge over the previous model, Genesis DH.
“More than 5,000 Genesis units were sold this month (October), bringing to more than 60,000 the number of cars being sold under the brand Genesis, and G80 is on a roll following the popularity of EQ900,” a Hyundai Motor official said.
The run of the Genesis brand is owed to new models with improved performances and upgraded branding, business sources said. In January, Hyundai Motor inaugurated the Genesis Premium Strategy Task Force under the umbrella of the Domestic Business Division and a luxury car product planning team to ramp up merchantability. Manfred Fitzgerald, former Director of Brand and Design at Lamborghini, has been leading the Genesis brand since January 2016.
Hyundai Motor opened the “Genesis Studio,” the first brand experience pavilion that made its debut in the shopping theme park Starfield Hanam.
The brand Genesis will have a six-car line-up by 2020. It will include the mid-size luxury sedan G70, luxury sport coupe, large-size luxury SUV and mid-size luxury SUV.
A diesel model will be released under the brand Genesis to meet diverse customer demand. The brand plans to set standards on its own specialized product development and reflect customer-oriented futuristic, innovative technologies, brand officials said. An after-sales center will be separated from Hyundai Motor in 2020 when the brand has a six-car line-up.
Hyundai Motor Group Announces Roadmap for Connected Car Development
Hyundai Motor Group has presented its roadmap for connected car development, paving the way for new innovations in vehicle connectivity. The group will collaborate with leading global IT and networking companies to develop its ‘Hyper-connected and Intelligent Car’ concept, with research and development focused on bringing new values and efficiencies to the lives of customers.
Along with the roadmap, Hyundai Motor Group plans to embark on a new era of connecting the ‘Car to Life’, as cars are increasingly at the center of our lifestyles. This initiative will provide users with a hub of infinite knowledge, plus the ability to analyze and utilize all information to enhance owner’s lives. The ‘Hyper-connected and Intelligent Car’ goes beyond converging communications technology and the vehicle to become a ‘High-Performing Computer on Wheels’. This is a concept of connecting the car to other cars, the office and to the city. In other words, Hyundai will connect cars to life.
The roadmap outlines four main service fields that will help develop smarter, more intelligent cars that can receive and utilize data faster than ever before. The mid- to long- term development focus includes a range of key features, including: smart remote maintenance services, autonomous driving, Smart Traffic and a connected Mobility Hub that provides security and data management for all elements of the connected car.
More specifically, the smart remote maintenance service will remotely diagnose and fix vehicle issues before they become apparent. Autonomous driving provides utmost safety by connecting a vehicle to city and road infrastructure. Smart Traffic reduces congestion, speeds-up journeys and minimizes social costs by considering traffic and road conditions. Lastly, the connected Mobility Hub will feature a mobile hub with strong computing power to make daily life and interaction with the car and its surroundings smarter.
In the short- to mid-term, Hyundai Motor Group will concentrate on technologies related to smartphone connectivity and Smart Home Services, while establishing the core infrastructure that will provide the foundation for future developments. In order to incorporate increasingly complex features in its roadmap, Hyundai will prioritize early investment in these selected areas.
The main areas of R&D focus include in-vehicle networks for high-speed transfer of large amounts of data, and cloud technology to collect vehicle data and provide computing power. Hyundai will also research big data analytics that will allow large data sets to be used effectively, and it will invest in connected car security, essential for protecting the integrity of a complicated platform hosting varying technologies.
Hyundai Motor Group will bring the future of connected cars closer by co-developing connected car technologies through ‘Open Innovation’ collaborations with global companies. The connected car roadmap will concentrate on industry-leading research and development to foster new talents that will change the way customers interact with their cars and the world around them.
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